TBC 1141Spring 2025
3 Credits

Classical Chinese Literature in Translation

Connect and integrate aesthetic appreciations and cultural understandings of the classical Chinese literature, and grasp the styles and creative skills of different Chinese poets and writers.
Zhang Jing 张晶
Course Introduction
Zhang Jing 张晶
Zhang Jing 张晶Ph.D. Beijing Foreign Studies University

Professor Zhang majored in American Literature, focusing on the studies of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Toni Morrison. She earned a Ph.D. degree at Beijing Foreign Studies University, a M.A. degree at Heilongjiang University, and a B. A. in English Language and Literature at Qiqihar University, China. Her publications include: Fundamentals of English Historical Linguistics, Beijing: Peking University Press (2010) and Nathaniel Hawthorne and Redemption, Beijing: China Commerce and Trade Press (2007).

Interests
  • Literature
  • Linguistics

Classical Chinese Literature in Translation

UIBE serves as our School of Record
3 Credits
Download Syllabus

Course Description

This course is a survey of the classical Chinese literature from ancient time to the fall of Qing Dynasty (1911). Starting with Classic of Odes (shih ching), the most ancient anthology of Chinese poetry which includes 305 poems, the classical Chinese literature bases its development on the features of a language characteristic of ideography, a philosophy combining Confucianism with Taoism and Buddhism, and a history based on centralized imperial reign and literati officialdom, as well as small scale peasant economy. The classical Chinese literature developed different forms and genres during its long history, e.g. classical poetry, lyric, aria, elegy, rhapsody, folk song, narrative verse, parallel prose, classical-language short story, vernacular short story, novel, drama, etc. Through a close study of the important classical Chinese literary works, represented by famous poets and writers such as Ch’ü Yüan, Li Po, Tu Fu, Po Chü-yi, Su Shih, Yüan Chen, Feng Meng-lung, Lo Kuan-chung, Shih Nai-an, Wu Cheng’en, Ts’ao Hsüeh-ch’in, Kuan Han-ch’ing, T’ang Hsien- tsu, etc., students will be able to explore their own ideas of what the wide variety of the classical Chinese literature is like, as well as, to understand the traditional Chinese culture, especially the particular philosophy, aesthetics, poetics, and mentality of the Chinese, contained in the classics. They will also find out the different styles and artistic ways used by the poets and writers in their literary creation.

Courses Outcomes

Lectures, readings, paper assignments, and discussions are designed to help you develop the skills to:

  • Think aesthetically, read critically, and write and speak persuasively.
  • Connect and integrate aesthetic appreciations and cultural understandings of the classical Chinese literature, and grasp the styles and creative skills of different Chinese poets and writers.
  • Develop the skill of literary criticism in a combination of both Western and Chinese literary theories.
  • Develop the practice of reading literary texts within their peculiar Chinese social, historical, cultural and mental contexts.
  • Use primary and secondary sources to construct original, complex, logical and aesthetic interpretations of the classical Chinese literary works.